Yesterday’s New Bedford Standard Times featured an op-ed by Professors Davies and Harrigan that would have been appropriate several months ago. But …

About The Author

Bill Greene has been engaged in the management of organizations and a variety of businesses since earning his MBA from Babson College and working at the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration. He is the author of *Common Genius*, *Wasted Genius*, and several books on business administration, economic history, and the art of rearing children and improving school systems.

Educated at Princeton, Babson, Harvard, and the Hague Academy of International Law, Greene remains active in politics, schooling, and the study of economics and history. He and his wife, Cathy, have nine children and sixteen grandchildren; and live in New England with two dogs, ten chickens, and a herd of Hereford cattle.

His interest in the growing income disparity within America comes from his own journey in life in America: A childhood during the Great Depression when he lived in poverty with his brother and their single mom, his subsequent scholarship financed college years, and finally, an entrepreneurial business career in finance, real estate, and investment management. His interest in the workings of government led to a number of elected and appointed offices and hands-on experience with the management of both private and public organizations. His publications show a life-long concern about the causes of poverty–both for some individuals within a prosperous society, and for the many people living in undeveloped nations. In *Saving America*! he has expressed these thoughts on poverty in America today:

“. . . our poverty was fortunately defined only by our financial condition, for when it came to pride and self-respect we were the equal of anyone in town. Our optimism and dreams were reflected by my mother’s advice “to hitch your wagon to a star,” which seemed to me as a ten year old to be a perfectly logical and achievable goal.”

A worse kind of poverty than I experienced is the poverty of the soul and I have seen that first-hand in other people who were in fact better off financially than my family. Such poverty is mostly in the mind and is much worse than just being broke, because the being broke kind can be fixed by work and persistence. Many biologists believe that the optimism and ambition needed to make one’s way are built into each of us by our genes and our environment. That may be true in part, but that would only underscore the need to instill an ambition and determination in each child to make the most of whatever their God-given abilities may be. Unfortunately, there are a lot of kids in America who are getting a low dose of those valuable traits and that deficiency is causing some of the mental kind of poverty that is so hard to escape.

My essays here are heartfelt because they come from a great appreciation of the opportunities I have had in life and the hope that such blessings can continue to be extended and benefit a larger number of Americans. Our goal must be to always remain rational and fight for justice and a sound resurrection of America’s fundamental strengths. Ben Carson concluded his recent book with these words: “I pray that with God’s blessings our past will be but a stepping stone to a bright future and that our best days will truly lie ahead of us−a beautiful new beginning.”[i] We can all say “Amen” to that, but it will definitely require a *new* beginning! This book, *Saving* *Democracy*!, explains how such a new beginning could be started.

One of the advantages of a sailor’s life is the freedom to throw off the lines that hold him bound; to sail away, thinking big thoughts and seeing new lands. The author’s schooner allows just such opportunities and can be visited here: Click here to learn more about the Isabella